While most focused on Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel’s Heisman hopes following his performance against Alabama, there was at least some who wondered how Manziel’s NFL Draft stock fluctuated.

That’s the question Greg A. Bedard of Sports Illustrated’s The Monday Morning Quarterback, set out to answer.

“It leads to one natural question to ask of (Alabama coach Nick Saban): Do Manziel’s talents translate to the pro game?”

“I think Johnny’s a unique player,” he said. “Many people have said about these guys, like [Robert Griffin III], that they’re not really NFL-style quarterbacks. But yet they’re all doing pretty well in the NFL.

“I think when somebody’s as instinctive as [Manziel] is, and as fast as he is, and as athletic as he is, and he’s developing into a pretty good passer—I mean last year he really developed as a passer—I do think he has an NFL future.”

“When chaos erupts—when everything breaks down and chaos begins—and he runs around, that’s his moment,” an AFC general manager who could be in the market for a quarterback told Bedard. “Is he a pure pocket passer? No. Does he have some athleticism to beat you with his feet and stuff? Yeah.”

“He’s in the toughest conference in the nation, and the production that he’s had in that conference and against the best team in the country [Alabama]—he just dices them up—he made it look easy,” the AFC assistant scouting director says. “That definitely has to be in the equation.”

One interesting comparison by Bedard puts Manziel and a very young Drew Brees in the light as the only quarterbacks to come back better against a Saban coached team in a rematch.

“Actually, another player had similar success. A certain Purdue quarterback, standing just a half-inch over six feet, threw for 196 yards and two touchdowns to beat Saban’s Michigan State team in 1998, and then had 509 yards and five touchdowns as the Boilermakers stunned the No. 7 Spartans in their next meeting. You know that player as Saints quarterback Drew Brees.”

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